DELAFIELD, Wis. — From bagger to manager, a beloved grocery worker in Delafield is retiring after 50 years in the business.
Tom Bonesho was just 16 years old when he was offered his first job at a grocery store in Milwaukee. Previously he had been delivering papers around the neighborhood.
"I started out as a bagger, bagging groceries and then I moved my way up," Bonesho said about how he got his start.
He now works at the Albrecht's Sentry in Delafield. If that's where you get your groceries, you may know him better as what his name tag says, "Manager Tom."
After five decades he can tell you just about everything there is to know in the grocery business.
"I've done everything. I've done pricing, I've run the office, I ran the bakery, the deli departments, I was a dairy manager, frozen foods. Yeah, I know the business I think," he said.
Through all those years and all of those roles, Bonesho said he made great friends and great memories. One of his memories happened just this last summer during a rain storm when the parking lot flooded. One of his colleagues, Jordan Jean Pierre, chuckled as he told the story.
"He thought he was going to be smart and put garbage bags over his feet to get out into the parking lot to unclog the drains, and then one of them ripped open so it was a [moot] point and he was just stomping all through the water," Jean Pierre said.
Nonchalantly Bonesho said, "Someone had to go get the leaves out of the sewer."
Friday was his second to last day in the business. As he says goodbye to working in 2023, his co-workers surprised him with a going away party.
"He's definitely one of our hardest-working people. He'll do anything we ask and we're gonna have some big shoes to fill," Jean Pierre said. "He's just the guy that you can go to that you know will get you out of stuff. He'll get you out of any jam."
Bonesho said he's looking forward to the simple things in his retirement, as well as no longer having to work holidays.
"I want to go to the festivals in the summertime. I want to go to the 4th of July parade. I want to be with my family," Bonesho said.
And his co-workers won't have to worry about missing him too much as Bonesho plans to make trips back to the Delafield grocery store.
"Bakery knows that I have to stop out here every May because I always order my cakes from them," Bonesho said with a smile on his face.
